DeSantis touts vaccines but won’t meet press
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis again avoided talking with the Florida news media Thursday, instead releasing a pre-taped video touting new treatments and vaccines for COVID-19.
In his five-minute message, DeSantis said the vaccines were “probably the greatest rays of hope” the state has seen since the pandemic began. But, he added, he would not mandate that Floridians get them when available.
The video message was unusual, although not unprecedented, for DeSantis, who had held neardaily press conferences on pandemic-related issues beginning in March.
Since the Nov. 3 election,
DeSantis has only given a handful of interviews to conservative outlets and one to the Weather Channel as Hurricane Eta approached the state.
He has avoided questions from Florida reporters since President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, leaving them with no real chance to ask about his statements on Fox News
calling for the Pennsylvania Legislature to consider overriding voters and select its own presidential electors.
DeSantis also has avoided questions about his embrace of controversial health advisor Scott Atlas, who has touted pandemic policies resembling herd immunity, or his administration’s hiring of a conspiracy theory-touting blogger, Kyle Lamb, for its data team.
Two vaccines with more than 90% effectiveness have been announced in recent weeks, one made by Pfizer and a second by Moderna. DeSantis said the Pfizer vaccine, which must be kept in cool temperatures, will be disbursed to five hospital systems with the capacity to keep them refrigerated soon after the Food and Drug Administration approves it.
The Orlando Sentinel reported Wednesday that AdventHealth would be one of the hospitals to receive the vaccine, along with others in Tampa, Jacksonville, Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
There will be about 40 million doses — 25 million of Pfizer’s and 15 million of Moderna’s — available to distribute throughout the country, DeSantis said in the video. Since the vaccine requires two doses, 20 million Americans could receive it by the end of December.
DeSantis said the state is ready to ship the vaccines, with preparations made starting in July with purchases of syringes and other material.
“Millions of doses are ready to ship as we speak,” DeSantis said. “As soon as the FDA approves, they will then go out within the next 24 hours. We expect our hospitals, hopefully, to receive these within the next three to six weeks. It is all contingent on when the FDA approves.”
He added, however, “The state will not mandate Floridians take these vaccines. That’s going to be the choice of each and every Floridian.”
On Wednesday, Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber slammed DeSantis’ pandemic response amid rapidly rising cases in the state and nationwide. Florida has now seen a cumulative total of more than 900,000 coronavirus infections, as the state reported 7,925 new cases Wednesday. With 87 more fatalities reported, 17,731 Florida residents are dead. “This isn’t working,” Gelber wrote in a letter to the governor that was signed by several other mayors in Florida. “It is unmistakably clear that Florida’s approach to managing this pandemic is failing horribly. ... The herd immunity theory advanced by your advisors, namely that we can allow this virus to spread in a controlled way while protecting the vulnerable, was wrong in theory and is being proven a disaster in practice. If we fail to change direction, there is no reason to believe these devastating trendlines will recede.”